Welcome to Rocket Launchers

Firework displays set off, by us, for you.

What we do ** Safety ** Designing a firework display

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What we do

Quite simply at Rocket Launchers, we will talk to you and, within your budget, design and fire the firework display you want. In doing so we must operate for the safety of the spectators, the general public and ourselves. (Of course it helps if you are in the UK!)

We prefer to fire smaller displays, but in terms of firework effects, you tend to get what you pay for! Having a suitable site is the most important part - open sites such as school playing fields, or agricultural land are preferred, but we’ve been known to work in gardens!

All our displays have to have a risk assessment and site visit carried out in advance and carry full specialist insurance. When required we will contact local authorities and so on, in advance of the display. We will of course clear all debris from a site wherever possible.

We have a good knowledge of what the different fireworks we buy can actually do, and pride ourselves in being able to build a display that looks good within your budget.

We will not carry out stewarding or crowd control at an event, but we are happy to advise organisers on what is practicable and safe for a display and can even lend you some of the equipment etc. you may need.

So, for whatever the occasion may be - wedding, retirement, corporate, it costs less than you think, just get in touch.....

Click here to contact us.

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Safety

If you are firing your own display and although it has been said many hundreds of times, it needs to be said again - Follow the safety instructions on the fireworks! This way you won’t get hurt. Your firework supplier will give you full safety instructions - FOLLOW THEM.

This means, keeping the recommended safety distances away. Setting the firework up in the appropriate way for firing. Never going back to re-light or "play" with a dud firework. Storing them appropriately and never setting fireworks off in your hands.

Don’t forget you have a duty of care in ensuring safety if you fire your own display. Especially think about crowd safety - people come to displays for safe fun. Not to be hurt, or see others get hurt

If self firing are you adequately insured? If you have a large private display, and especially if people are paying to see the fireworks, this is a must. It may be easier and cheaper to get professional firers to assist. The fact we worry about these sorts of things is one good reason to have your display professionally fired.

In any case we recommend you read one of the many useful fireworks safety leaflets available from the Health and Safety Executive (they are free) if you are going to set your own display off, or run crowd control at a large display.

Make a start now by looking at the HSE web site.

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Designing a firework display

This is where the magic is, so I don't want to give too much away! The trick here is in being able to visualise how the thing will look. This means knowing what different fireworks do and understanding the names they are given.

For example a Roman Candle, is not a Catholic being burnt at the stake (it's original derivation) but a series of coloured stars fired into the air from a cardboard tube. They may sometimes have special effects as well, such as comets, which as the name suggests, leaves a tail. They can be a single tube or multiple. The best have three or more tubes that fire simultaneously in a fan shape - these require a fair bit of space though!

One of the most useful fireworks for doing a variety of things is the cake. This is a number of small fireworks, linked together into a whole. They start as small as 9 shot (9 small tubes), to many hundreds of shots. These offer a wide range of effects, from flashes and loud bangs (Dragon disporting pearls springs to mind - you have to think chinese here!). To multi-coloured effects with pleasant whizzes and whistles (various cakes). Go by the name of the firework, the description on the side and the sales material.

Other fireworks types include rockets - which now have some pretty stunning effects, and are known and loved by all. Fountains, which are generally very pretty; mines, which are spectacular and noisy (a massive display of colour and a loud bang); bombettes - often noisey but with a range of effects and so on. Your supplier should be able to explain the differences to you, so I won't waste space here with this. I personally like the set-pieces (waterfalls, wheels etc), as they look nice and give a display a nice change of pace.

When designing a display think of the audience. Often very small children don't like the loud bangs of some pieces and especially the big mines. Also, how long should the display last - this will be dictated by budget to some extent, but you don't want people to get bored. With these factors in mind think about the pace of the display.

Most people know of Torvill and Dean's ice skating to music, in particular Ravel's Balero. A firework display can be viewed in similar terms. You want to start of with a slow and gentle tempo, smaller less spectacular fireworks - warm the crowd to the idea. Then build up the pace the visual impact of the display to a big finale. Save most of your biggest pieces for the finale and try to have something going on in the air (i.e. rockets) at the same time as something on the ground (a big cake is good). If you've got enough fireworks the finale can be quite long - but make sure you go out with a bang (as it were), so the crowd knows its over.

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